Turks united in pursuit of rebels

Nationalism up over conflict with Kurds in Iraq

November 05, 2007|By Christine Spolar, Tribune foreign correspondent

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — After a tumultuous political year in which the military threatened a coup and ruling party leaders were characterized as Islamic throwbacks, rebel Kurds have done something once thought impossible: given Turkey's secular-minded generals and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a common cause.

The pursuit of the PKK, a 2-decade-old Kurdish rebel group operating on both sides of the border with Iraq, has become a project of national unity, buoyed by popular and political considerations.

As Erdogan meets with President Bush in Washington this week about the PKK crisis -- and after a weekend of meetings between Turkish leaders and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- the ruling powers in Turkey are expected to insist that the United States fight terror in Iraq. Turkey has long considered the PKK terrorists; so does the United States. Turkey now wants the Bush administration to squelch PKK activities and raids from inside Iraq's mountainous reaches.

Turkey has threatened to send troops, thousands of whom are massed at the border, into Iraq. Turkey's feelings may have changed slightly Sunday: Eight captive soldiers were released, nearly two weeks after they were captured in a skirmish with the PKK that left 12 other soldiers dead.

The Turkish soldiers reportedly were handed over to Iraqi officials, who then turned them over to U.S. military personnel. They returned to Turkey on Sunday, according to The Associated Press.

Still, Erdogan never made the hostages a consideration in his vision of a rout of the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party. Turkey has lost nearly 50 soldiers in the past month to PKK forces, and thousands over the years. Turkey has ruled out talks with the PKK, and Turkish troops battled PKK fighters inside Turkey throughout last week.

Rising nationalism

Erdogan will head to the White House with Gen. Ergin Saygun, deputy chief of the general staff, and two other generals, an unusually robust military retinue, according to local news reports. Both the Kurdish issue and the American use of airspace over Turkey to supply the U.S. military in Iraq are on the agenda, news reports said.

"The whole situation has pushed them together, and there is a real sense of rising nationalism," said Bejan Matur, a Kurdish former columnist for the daily Zaman. "I don't think the prime minister and president want to go into Iraq, but there is pressure, and it has been building for some time.

"Maybe with the support of the United States, they will find a way out," Matur said.

Turkey's demands for confronting the PKK come after months of political anguish. Turkey's military -- the keeper of the secular republic envisioned by Turkey's founder Kemal Ataturk -- has been agitating for a year for a PKK rout.

Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party, known as the AKP, repeatedly balked at the notion of a military campaign against the estimated 5,000 fighters in the mountain range that straddles Iraq, Turkey and Iran. He said he sought a long-term political, rather than military, solution; many Kurds in southeastern Turkey and in this central city of Diyarbakir, saw Erdogan's AKP promise as a fresh approach to ensuring Kurdish rights

Erdogan's entreaties for dialogue were made as he faced down the military in another potentially devastating standoff. In May, when Erdogan proposed his political partner, Abdullah Gul, for president, the general staff gave notice that it was considering a coup.

The military saw Erdogan's move as a threat to democracy and cast the AKP, often characterized as a moderate Islamic-based political party, as a challenge to secularism.

Erdogan quickly called for general elections. AKP won handily, and Gul was eventually elected president.

Kurdish voters in cities such as Diyarbakir, which has benefited from increased financial incentives during Erdogan's first term, turned out to back AKP. The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party even lost seats to the AKP in this key city.

The past few weeks and tension over the PKK have stirred a groundswell of patriotism in Turkey as well as put pressure on the political elite for action. But street rallies in major cities also moved beyond nationalist rhetoric. Within the last week, Kurdish businesses and political offices were attacked in some cities.

State-run and independent television coverage of Turkish military action on the border has been boosterish. Evening news shows feature non-stop military training films with every report -- filler material because reporters have been restricted from entering any area inside Turkey where the government says troops are advancing.

"It's never been like this," said Fauk Balikci, chairman of the Southeastern Journalist Committee in Diyarbakir. "Even in the past, when tensions were high, there wasn't this nationalistic talk. ... When I watch television, there is so much archive film on that it looks like there is already a war going on."